Welcome to the Rainy Season

As I was working on posts last week I came across this one, patiently waiting in a state of "draft" since March. Wow. Has it really been 3 months since my trip to Kenya? This year is moving by much too quickly! Finding this post made me realize that I kind of failed at documenting our trip. Oh well. Maybe I'll get around to getting the rest of the stories up. Maybe. Let's not get our hopes up. This post, however, does document a pretty notable day--the one where we all got soaked. Enjoy reminiscing with me!

Hell's Gate National Park
Monday, March 14

After the lake tour and walking safari we headed to the lodge to check in, eat lunch, and change into shorts for our tour of Hell’s Gate National Park. Just before the entrance to the park, we stopped at little shop and each paid 500 ksh to rent bikes that we would ride into and through the park! We had been planning this part of the trip since the beginning and we were pretty excited. The excitement, however, dwindled slightly as I struggled to ride my well-worn bike uphill to the park entrance. I would like to blame some of the challenge to the high altitude, but it was also due in part to the misappropriate gear that my bike was stuck in. At the gate, while I was seriously reconsidering this whole “bike through the park” plan, Eustace got my gears adjusted and I felt a little better about it all. (It turns out that each one of us was wondering at that point if we should have just ridden in the van rather than taking the bikes, but we stuck it out.) Hell’s Gate is a beautiful park and it was fun just ride the dirt roads and see zebra and gazelles as I went.

Our destination for our biking tour was the gorge in Hell’s Gate where there is a fabulous view of the area. As we approached the entrance to the gorge, a herd of cape buffalo decided that would a good time to cross the road—and they took their time doing so. Cape buffalo are massive animals and can be fierce (and charge) if you get too close. So, we kept our distance. As we waited for them to cross, the rain that had recently started as a sprinkle began to pick up. As our time at the park was running out, it became clear that the rain wasn’t stopping anytime soon and the buffalo weren’t going to move out of our way.

Enjoying the ride and the view -- before the rain!

We decided to forgo the gorge and ride back to the entrance to the park. Just minutes into our return ride the thunder started and then the downpour and then the hail! As pea sized hail began pelting our arms and legs and faces, we pulled over to the side of the road and took cover under a tree (or tried too). The trees in the park weren’t made for rain cover! As we huddled together in the cold rain (so cold!) we couldn’t help but laugh together—what an adventure our bike ride through the park had become!

We were very, very cold. But still managed to smile!

Unfortunately, the storm was just beginning. We stood under that leafless tree for probably half an hour before deciding that enough of the storm had passed over us and we had to just ride back. So, we did. The rain kept pouring down and the hail kept stinging our legs, but we pressed on. As we reached the entrance to the park, the storm let up. Our driver started laughing when we saw us all soaking wet and exhausted—they didn’t have any rain at the gate or any idea that a storm had gone through the park! While we never ended up seeing the beautiful gorge of Hell’s Gate, we definitely had a memorable experience and we have a great story to tell! (We look forward to seeing Rose’s pictures of the gorge, from a previous visit, at a later date.)

Shivering, we rode back to the lodge in the warm van and then took some much needed showers. Clean and warmer, we ate a lovely dinner (the first of many international buffets) and then went to bed quite early. We had a very tiring day!

Our hotel room: four rooms are inside these Africa meets England cottages.

Classic tourist photo in front of the lodge.